BOISE – Colorado State has aspirations of being a program similar to the one coach Jim McElwain left, Alabama. Well, his team is expected to get an up-close view of what that looks like as early as next season.

The Rams are in the final stages of formally agreeing to a two-game contract with Alabama starting next season, The Denver Post has learned. The tentative framework is this: Both games will be played in Tuscaloosa, in 2013 and 2015, and Colorado State stands to get more than $1 million for each game.

It would be a 13th game on CSU’s schedule next season, which is permissible due to the fact that the team plays at Hawaii. CSU athletic director Jack Graham would not comment on any negotiations with Alabama and called it “a rumor.”

“The rumor that’s out there about Alabama is just that right now, it’s a rumor,” he said. “Games like playing Alabama are certainly possibilities that we are considering. Lots of things have to line up to pull the trigger to making the commitment to playing a football game like that. Unless and until we actually complete that process and fulfill all of the necessary negotiations that are required to make something like that happen, that’s not done.”

If, and when the deal is finalized, it would be a quick reuniting of McElwain and Alabama, for which he was the offensive coordinator/quarterback coach from 2008-2011. The Crimson Tide won two national titles while he was there. Colorado State hired him to his first job as head coach after letting go of Steve Fairchild following the 2011 season.

Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com

Oh Mr Graham is a sly one, you offer up your school as a body-bag opponent TWICE, with no consideration of any home games in return and you call it a coup.

PJ

I say, GO FOR IT! It’s the way you build a successful program and get recruits. Having the potential of playing at Alabama helps to tantalize recruits (because of national exposure) and bring talent into the program…and also helps to financially bolster it. It’s a very smart move. Not only that, but one should NEVER dismiss a football game because there is the thought of a loss, that’s small minded and not how you build a winning program and that’s not a good attitude…any given Saturday! Any student athlete who is serious about what they do should be excited about this potential opportunity to get better and play a winning program. It’s great experience and a wonderful challenge. Go Jack and way to put your best foot forward! Go Rams!

So they will have one game against a real division 1 team. Lets see how that works out. At least the other 12 are against the JV league the MWC. If they are going to spend the money for the stadium that will hold 3.5 times their average attendance with no tv money orminteresting matchups they are going to have to find a coupleof these bloodbaths every year. Otherwise graham will succeed in bankrupting the program unless his donors who are going to supposedly build the stadium are also going to pay the large annual expense of running it as well.

Kensler joined The Denver Post in 1989 and has covered a variety of beats, including Colorado, Colorado State, golf, Olympics and the Denver Broncos. His brush with greatness: losing in a two-on-two pickup basketball game at Ohio State against two-time Heisman Trophy winner Archie Griffin.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.